


Draconian

by Akalish



Series: Ash Petals [1]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Dark, Alternate Universe - Dystopia, Angst, Civil War, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Disabled Character, Dysfunctional Family, Emotional Manipulation, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, F/M, Fire Lord Azula, Fire Nation Royal Family, Hallucinations, Horror, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Incest, Insanity, Mental Instability, Minor Character Death, Phoenix King Ozai, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Romance, Slow Build, Spirits, Stockholm Syndrome, Torture, Tragedy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-28
Updated: 2016-05-28
Packaged: 2018-07-10 17:15:52
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 764
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6997468
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Akalish/pseuds/Akalish
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What is the difference between having a responsibility for a populace and execution your vision for the future? Well, for one thing, negligence follows troop the moment your consider them to be identical and not complementary products for governing a country. </p><p>For Azula that means that she does not know, which kind of ambitions will bring her down and which responsibilities will elevate her status.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Draconian

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [So We'd Both Be Free](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/203419) by electric gurrl. 
  * Inspired by [Move the Mountains that Aren't There](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/203422) by attackfishscales. 



> I am the most terrible person ever to shift between fandoms without even feeling guilty about it, not to mention I'm horrible enough as it is with not finishing my earlier works without the slightest concern. But I have to admit, I haven't felt this inspirational since I left the my first fandom two years ago. No, seriously, I haven't really written anything during that time; just small niches pieces that never went anywhere. But now, it's completely different and I have so much to contribute to this fandom, it's crazy. And I just love being back in the driving seat and write to my heart's content. (That's not even a saying, but who cares? I'm back where I belong!)
> 
> This is just a small teaser for my upcoming fan fiction, **Ash Petals** , which is an AU from Sozin's Comet Part III — Into The Inferno in which Ozai rules as Phoenix King and Azula as Fire Lord and Avatar Aang is dead while Zuko is imprisoned for his treachery against the Fire Nation and tortured within an inch of his life. So yeah, pretty dark themes ahead, you have been warned. 
> 
> The overall outline is actually completed; I know what I want to happen from start to the end and what to happen in between that time span (more or less). I just need to write it down, and I already have some of the more important parts written down through notes and small scenes mapped out across the story. :)
> 
> Remember, teaser! The real story will have to wait until I've finished it completely before I post anything more.

* * *

Book I

Draconian

**惡**

* * *

_"War is peace._  
_Freedom is slavery._  
_Ignorance is strength."_  
— **George Orwell (1984)**

* * *

 

Epilogue

** At the End of the World**

Even now, facing her father in a match dominated by the lust for power, she can feel the cold hatred flow through her veins — like ice spiked into spears, stabbing her very soul with such force that the cold is burning — as it had done all those years ago when realisation hit and still does every time she looks at him. If only she had known sooner, maybe things wouldn't have come down to this: father vs. daughter in their last battle, lost hopes flickering back to life in what they don't even dare to consider will be the end of loss and agony. The calm before the storm as the world awaits its destiny.

It took her years to come down to this, standing up and believing in herself, thinking for the better for herself and for the benefits for her _people_ , despite deserving not an iota of their loyalty. She knows she was never meant to rule. True rulers are born leaders. And leaders, in turn, hold a great responsibility for others and a strong sense of compassion and selflessness that is meant to bring you closer to the population you protect and wish to see grow; both in strength and in morality. The explicit capability to decipher right from wrong even in the gravest of situations with such wisdom it is considered much beyond your years of living. It is all something resided within the heart, connecting with your mind and body, your very soul devoted to embrace, and of which rightfully divines your power and your right to rule.

Azula never possessed such traits.

But her brother always had. Zuko had everything, everything she had ever wanted, and additional she could never imagine to achieve. He had so much to contribute to the world, so much to give. _Has_ so much more to show the world, _has_ so much that can change it for the better, _has_ what it takes to right their fallen country, she reprimands herself. Because he was always the better between the two of them — still _is_ despite his continuative denial — no matter what he thought and no matter how much she thought it differently from an alternative point of view earlier on in time; he was always the preferred one for reasons unknown, when it came to the popular, reasonable opinion — the true heir. Even if consequences and sins has finally caught with him, because there is nothing she can do to reverse time and _fix this_. It doesn't matter, not any longer.

He is not here and has no capabilities to do what she is about to do; what she does out of necessity, what she does to protect and save what little there is left of a world controlled by draconian laws and laid in ash. What she does for _him_. Perhaps he will never regain what he lost — what was _stolen_ from him. But she will make sure that he will regain everything the moment all of this is at its end. He will become as great as he once was at a point where he could even beat _her_ , his prodigious little sister, just as he nearly did that day on their Final Agni Kai, when he turned a new leaf and became his own person. He will return to that place, she has sworn it already, and she _will_ keep her promise, if only because it is all she has left.

But until then, balance, and the heavy burden it carries, rests on her shoulders, and she will do everything it takes to make sure the world will never again be brought into an era of chaos and terror. If only to see him smile once more.

There is trepidation in the air, a sense of dread and tension wafting through her nostrils, but it does not emit from her. Never has and never will, despite the course of her personal history. And yet, between the two of them, between the perfectly imperfect girl and the monster lurked for too deep in darkness, she is the first to break, like porcelain on stained silver.

She charges without hesitation, her piercing amber eyes blazing with a thirst for blood, but her face set into cold precision without an inch of self-doubt. And what happens afterwards is a battle filled with torture and terror with fire raining from the sky, cascading their fighting forms in the middle of dawn.


End file.
